IB Physics: Problem with Teacher

[Angel Bravo]

Hello Guys,

I take IB Physics HL and I am in IB year 1...

I love Physics and have always scored very high scores throughout the years, until i joined IB..

Now when I joined IB, I thought I was fortunate enough to have a physics teacher holding a PHD in physics..

As it turns out, Im not very fortunate

Right now I have failing grades for IB Physics (and so do the rest of the 10-13 students in my class, no exaggeration)..

My teacher though as qualified as he is, is very old and speaks in a very low (boring) and slow voice and since he is from Arabic descent, speaks with an Arabic accent. Now this would be something you could adapt to and with a lot of sugar before the lesson you could manage to stay awake.

But it doesn't stop there.. His teaching method is very old fashioned.. I have spend the whole year looking at him explaining with his back turned to us and just writing notes on the board and not paying any attention to the fact that nobody can understand him..

We tried to tell him that his teaching method is not appropriate and we don't understand, but when he gave us Powerpoint slides it was worse.

What he does is he comes to class, explains a new topic and then just solves questions. You can sense that he is unprepared, because the question s he solves, either he gets them wrong or are not accurate.

Another point is, that his PHD works against us.. His level of knowledge in physics is SO high that when he explains to us its really hard for him to get down to our level.

At first I thought that the fault lied in me, that I had to buck up and catch up.. But when I started asking around, it seems that the IB year 2's have the same problem and none of them scored a predicted grade higher than 5.. I find this very worrying..

My class and I have approached the administration to try to resolve something, but he has been teaching at this school for 20 years and thus its unlikely that he is going to be fired/replaced.. Also, he is the only teacher in school accredited with IB so only he is allowed to teach us.. (Plus he has a PHD)

Now, as to why I am here, I need your advice on how I should improve my grades in physics..

- I have tried to do self-study with the IB Physics book, but as many of you would know it is almost impossible to read the book due to its very complicated and difficult structured language..

- I have tried to do self-study with the help of youtube videos, websites.. But I feel its really hard to make a connection with what is said on those websites and what I need to know for IB and make a connection of it all..

- I have tried to find tutors.. But in this country there are only 2 IB schools, it is very hard to find English speaking IB physics tutors or English speaking physics tutors in the first place.

So now I am here, wondering what I should do.. If you guys have any advice on what I could do to resolve my failing grades.. I would gladly hear it

Thank you,

Angel

[Need Help Like NOW :)]

DAMN! Finally someone who has the same problem I do! My teacher seems to think its OBVIOUS whats going on in physics. Mind you i LOVE physics and I do HL. In high school i was all through A* then I reached IB and my grades dropped MAD! and i aint the only one cause we all get level 4s and if we lucky a 5 can be reached but we STILL fail which is crazy!

what I've decided to do is try my best and get passed IB past papers and go through them and when I get to the point where I have no clue whats going on I'd ask him or someother student in class.

Work with your classmates and help each other out. Thats the best way,even if you are in competition with each other you'll need them for support because you are in this together.

maybe that MAY help. Or we can go through whatever you dont understand form one IB student to another

Regards,

Stephanie

[Abu]

I had the same situation as you. I loved Physics in GCSE, had A*s and loved the logicality of it all. Once I got to IB, my teacher was also a PhD, of the mad scientist variety, who definitely knew his stuff but lacked in the teaching department because he used to teach university students before.

He left in the first year and was replaced by 2 other similarly nutty teachers, each one worse than the other.

The result of it all is to self study your way through IB, and try to drop to SL because if you're not good at self studying science, you'll be screwed at the time of the exams. Going through past papers meant nothing to me because I didn't even know how to come to the answers. Most of my Paper 3 in the actual exam was blank, Physics was god awful.

[MitchCampbell]

I'm sorry you have a teacher who's not giving you what you need. It does happen, sadly. I've been an IB teacher for many years (I've been teaching IB Math and Physics). A Ph.D. doesn't necessarily make someone a good teacher! As for what you can do to get help - I've got a set of videos that I put up that can walk you through one topic: IB Physics HL topic 13: Quantum and Nuclear Physics. That thread can be found in the same category as this thread. That may help you out some! I'm doing another set of videos for Fields and Forces (SL topic) and Motion in Fields (AHL topic). Those will take a few weeks before they're online though.

I do suggest that you get some tutoring or ask other friends for help. It often is a good idea to talk to others about what you're doing! Sorry you don't live in Denmark, because I run a tutoring company here where I only hire really talented teachers. I make sure they have good grades from their university but I also make sure that they can teach! For next school year we'll be doing online tutoring, so that may help you out. However, this is still in the planning stages, but I'll let people know next year when it's up!

If you want class notes from my last class (they took their exams in May 2009, then you can click here: http://tutoring.dk/physics.html. These are class notes that I used from 2007-2009 for the entire two-year course. My students took the May 2009 exams and did really well (all 6 and 7 grades - they really worked hard and I was so proud of them!). Perhaps these class notes can help you out some.

Cheers,

Mitch

[hannah.mb]

I had a Chemistry teacher JUST like that. First of all his accent was atrocious but as you said with a spoonful of sugar and some getting used to, it was ok. However his teaching methods did not by any means improve... plus he was a tad bit mean and he kept staring weirdly at you

That was in IB1, it was his first year and people were failing miserably. So he was fired and now we have a decent Chem teacher that we can all understand and who understands us So in that way I am luckier than you are. His coming has really meant a lot of grade improvement for me and for my year in general.

What I suggest you do is TRY the self-study. In the beginning it is really hard, but after a few months you get the hang of it and then you basically restudy things you've seen before, and then it goes quicker. Hang in there, it really is the most sensible thing to do while you're waiting for a miracle. Ib is only 2 years, you know, so if the guy isnt going to get fired and/or replaced very soon it'll be time for you to write exams...

I also agree with whoever said to study in groups with friends. TIP- pick out people who are not totally demotivated, if there are any left (!), and people who are generally smart and determined to succeed. Don't be shy, they're probably stressing as much about physics as you are. Step up and ask if you can form a study group. Arrange a specific day of the week to study, say, after school and try and do this regularly. Stick to your arrangements. Give yourselves little portions of "homework" to revise at home and then explain to each other the next time you meet.

The above suggestion usually works well if you're studying theoretical concepts and such, but may be of less help with working problems.

That my friend is by the way the reason I did not choose physics (Physics + Hannah = mushroom cloud). Ok, but that doesn't help you. I understand that Physics has a lot of problem working and that is probably the main area you need to have a good teacher for. Here I would suggest trying to find someone, an adult, or a uni student, in your community that is good in Physics and/or maths and who may be able to help you out, since you were saying there were no tutors. There must be someone you know out there who's good in Physics! They may be a little rusty but give it a try, you might be surprised.

Hope this helps. Bon Courage as they say in French